261 



language west of this line, then, is West Eskimo, the language 

 east of it. East Eskimo. 



If the Central Eskimo group should prove to be on the 

 West Eskimo side, the boundary- line must be somewhat 

 modified. 



In about all the examples that have been found of retro- 

 gressive uvularization, the Mackenzie River dialect agrees with 

 the Alaska dialects in having preserved the original shape of the 

 consonant-group, where the uvular stands last {ifjr-, atjr-, etc.). 

 Only in the word for eye , does the Mackenzie dialect come 

 nearer to the present Labrador form ij'e than to the Alaska 

 words, the latter having preserved, but the former having 

 completely lost the uvular. But this sound was still preserved 

 in this word in the Baffin Land dialect as late as Frobisher's 

 time, and indeed in Greenlandic even as late as Egede's time 

 {irse)^ and in these dialects it occupied the first place in the 

 consonant-group ; this leads me to presume that it must also 

 have been present at one time in the Labrador and Mackenzie 

 dialects, whether it has had the same or a different position 

 in the consonant-group in those two dialects. 



The subject of metathesis and uvularization in the Eskimo 

 dialects is not exhausted when we have determined the chief 

 line of division between East and West Eskimo. As has al- 

 ready been mentioned at the end of ^, 32, there are indications 

 that within the West Eskimo dialect-group (Mackenzie R. dialect 

 and Alaska dialects) there must have existed an old division 

 similar to the one between the East and West Eskimo groups. 

 In other words, as far as these sound-changes are concerned, 

 there seem to be two strata, as it were, in the dialects. Peti- 

 tot's Vocabulaire of the Mackenzie R. dialect contains several 

 forms which might indicate that this dialect loo, in several 

 words, has followed these East Eskimo tendencies. For example: 

 M. topHpapk (démon), apnapk (femme adulte), kpepneptopk (noir), 

 tchepnaptoapk (grsitm), opktçôk (grahse) — cf. Gr. to'rnaq^ arnaq, 



